Pixhawk With V-Tail Quadcopter???

Hey,

I am looking into purchasing a V-Tail quadcopter from HERE and was wanted some feedback on the following points as I'm pretty new to copters... been flying RC helis for years but wanted to try something new...

  • Is the V-Tail any good?
  • How would you set-up Pixhawk to work with this format of copter (Quad or Tri)
  • Has anyone done this before or do I avoid this

I want to use this copter for FPV but also have the added benefit of GPS and Mission planner plus the thing just looks cool... any advice is much appreciated!!

Thank you in advance.

Dave.

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  • This is spot on

    So easy: config tune :Full parameter List. FRAME  has options :-

    0:Plus  1:X  2:V  3:H  4:V-Tail  5:A-Tail  10:Y6B (New)

    Thank you Sir

    Mission planner v tailPNG.PNG

    Mission planner v tail after.PNG

    https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3702373728?profile=original
  • Well, I gave up trying to tune my adverse roll issue and built a new frame that more closely matches the motor layout of the Hunter V-Tail. I also lightened in up so its not as under powered as it was.

    Ive only done a couple of very short test hovers but its working much much better!

    It would be nice if there was some way to adjust parameters in MP to allow for different motor layout angles when they dont match the Hunter V-Tail exactly.

    • Kool. I haven't looked at the footage yet to see if I captured it (just set my cell on it's side and hit record) but I did fly a bit more on the vtail 500 and pixhawk and it flys fine except for giving it yaw. Giving it any yaw even just a little bit it does rotate but also loses altitude. It seems like something with the default tuning like it underthrusts the motors too much or something and causes it to fall at the same time as rotating. I wasn't flying it very high off the ground as I wasn't wanting to risk a bad crash if I had an issue so it was a problem with trying not to hit the ground hard. At higher altitude it wouldn't be as much of an issue but it still does seem dramatic. I would think you should be able to yaw a bit on a vtail without losing altitude. 

      I decided to shelf my vtail frame and move my pixhawk and esc's etc off of it onto a new quad frame. Extending the legs helped some stuff but also caused it to be very tippy since it's only 3 legged. I'd rather have a properly supported frame type that functions with my pixhawk and I can hopfully fly my gopro gimbal with my pixhawk rather then putting more effort into an inexpensive vtail frame. 

  • Hi guys,

    I just finished building a PVC V-Tail (my first ever quad of any kind) and it hovers fine with stock PID's, Im running AC3.2 - I think the latest non-beta build.

    However, Im having big time yaw issues.

    When ever I give it anything more that very slight yaw control inputs, it wants to pitch nose down and roll opposite to the yaw input. It can be pretty dramatic.

    One thing that may be adding to my problem is I didnt keep to the motor angles of the Hunter V-Tail. My rear motors are tipped at +- 40 deg, but much further apart than the Hunter. The quad is also heavy and under powered. It takes about 70% throttle to hover.

    I'm a raw newbie so I have no clue how to tune this. Any tips on where to start?

    • Well no tips but can verify what your seeing I guess.

      I have a lynxmotion vtail 500 but i modified it (added longer legs). I was trying to fly it after extending the legs and adding a gopro / gimbal. I could take off and hover a bit but not maintain hover. I guess the overall weight was just too much with the gimbal and camera. I removed them and then was able to take off and hover pretty well. I couldn't get too crazy because was just testing in the backyard, will take it to the park on a less windy day. Anyways....

      When I first flew it my rotate was opposite so I reversed it in my transmitter to fix that problem. Today when I tried the yaw I saw something similar to what you saw, it would yaw the wrong way and also just kinda act erratic. I'm thinking I can solve the opposite problem again by reversing the yaw in the transmitter but it also acted really erratic so not sure about that. I'm thinking maybe there is an issue with the default vtail configuration.

      I was able to to take off and hover several times, forward, backward and side to side motion acted as expected, only when I tried yaw did it act really erratic. I'm only on the default vtail configuration without any tuning as well. Depending on the weather / wind the next couple days I'll try to take it to the park for a more in depth test and maybe make a video so people with more experience can chime in. Overall besides the yaw issue my vtail was working pretty well without tuning, I just had an issue maintaining altitude some times, it would start dipping down and I would try throttle up but it would still descend, some times even touching down for a second before firing back up. Might have been gps related since I have trees around the backyard, but again not sure, pretty new to all this myself.

      • Tim - was your vtail flying ok prior to your mods?

        Im wondering if its going to be necessary to build a new frame that follows the expected motor layout/angles more closely in order to fly a vtail.

        • You know I actually only flew it once. The short legs was an issue with the rear props hitting into the grass which prompted me to get it up higher. The first time I flew it I had to swap the 2 and 4 motor connections to get it to fly right but it seems they fixed that issue because I'm now using the regular quad x motor config. Really I don't think I tried yaw at all that first time, I went to the park and it shot up in the air after takeoff and I brought it back with just the right stick controls iirc which means no yaw.

          It's short because I was just shooting with my cell phone for take off but this is that first time.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J5duMmv2gs

          • Ok, thanks for the info!

      • Thanks for the feedback Tim.

        Mine yaws in the correct directions. Its just the adverse roll and pitch down that is the issue.

        I flew again today and tried some random changes to the PID's. I did managed to get the pitching slightly better, but the adverse roll is at least as bad and possibly worse. It feels less stable and seems to want to over shoot on corrections now.

        Im afraid to try auto tune because I dont dare do any yaw inputs for corrections. Need to get this at least somewhat better first. I'll keep playing with it for now.

        I will try to get a video as well.

  • Thank you Tom. I have designed my V-Tail now in a way so that all 4 motors sit almost perfectly on a circle around the CG. Taking about the correct angle for the tail rotors: Some say 40degree, some say 30degbis the correct angle. This is a huge difference. Any idea what might be the best with APM mixer? Thanks again!
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